fmgaijin
86 ( +1 | -1 )OTB Tournament 3 and 5 moversHere are two short mates I played in OTB tournament games when I was a young 2200 player. What's curious about both is that the opponents were decent players who actually got in trouble by seeing threats . . . :

NN (1750) vs. Gaijin: 1.f4 e5 2.f5?? (He didn't want to accept that risky gambit P . . . ) d5 (Hmmm, now the P on f5 is attacked, and there's only one way to protect it: 3.g4?? Qh4#. And you thought you'd never see the Fool's Mate in a real game, eh?

Yes, both opponents were seriously embarrassed! These two games were featured prominently in an article I wrote 20 years ago boringly subtitled something like "Tournament Games I've Won in 10 or Less Moves."

fmgaijin
40 ( +1 | -1 )Even WeirderThe strangest short game I ever witnessed was played by my son Jeremiah in an elementary school tournament when he was 8: NN-Jeremiah: 1.e4 d5 2.ed Qd5 3.Ke2?? Qe4#. Curiously enough, back in the 30's when the rule was (temporarily) that if you made an illegal move, you had to substitute a K move, this same game appeared in a master tournament when White played 3.Bc3?? (those darned pieces all look alike!) and had to retract it and play 3.Ke2 . . .

fmgaijin
40 ( +1 | -1 )Even WeirderThe strangest short game I ever witnessed was played by my son Jeremiah in an elementary school tournament when he was 8: NN-Jeremiah: 1.e4 d5 2.ed Qd5 3.Ke2?? Qe4#. Curiously enough, back in the 30's when the rule was (temporarily) that if you made an illegal move, you had to substitute a K move, this same game appeared in a master tournament when White played 3.Bc3?? (those darned pieces all look alike!) and had to retract it and play 3.Ke2 . . .